The parent company of Grand Theft Auto 5 developer Rockstar games, Take-Two, has filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain name GTAV.com, and seeks to take control of the website from the owner, according to Fusible.
Take-Two is seeking the domain name for the obvious use of promoting Grand Theft Auto 5, which has an official website as a subsection of Rockstar's overall website. The case is listed as active on the WIPO website. Having the ability to use the domain name GTAV.com would give Take-Two and Rockstar the best website available for the game, but Take-Two may not be able to wrestle the domain name away from the original owner. While Take-Two has successfully shut down fake beta sites for the game in the past, this is a whole different kind of case, so it will be interesting to see what the World Intellectual Property Organization decides. After all this is not just some website designed to steal people's information, this is a legitimate website, and the case may work out in their favor rather than Take-Two's.
The current owner of the website is looking to sell it, which may help Take-Two's case succeed. The website previous was a blog about Grand Theft Auto 5, and the previous owner was listed as a resident of Spain. According to Screenshots.com the website has been active since at least March 2012.
While Take-Two has been very successful taking down malicious websites based around Grand Theft Auto 5, other companies facing a similar dilemma have not fared so well. One of the most infamous examples was Nintendo failing to secure the website WiiU.com after the WIPO denied their claim to the domain name. However, Microsoft was able to successfully file a claim that granted them the rights to XboxOne.com, so the possibility is still there that Take-Two wins this case.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is coming out September 17 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and is expected to be the most successful game of the year and is a strong game of the year contender for most people, despite not being out yet. Between the expanded setting, three playable protagonists, and wide variety of activities and vehicles to test out, it is hard to imagine any other game offering more bang for the buck than Grand Theft Auto 5.
Look out for more Grand Theft Auto 5 news, including news about the game's multiplayer, later this month.